The day polling died: Results just make no sense

FILE - In this Sept. 25, 2012 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks in Vandalia, Ohio. So much for Mitt Romney's plan to compete for Democratic-leaning Michigan or Pennsylvania. And what about President Barack Obama's early hopes of fighting it out for GOP-tilting Arizona, Georgia or Texas? Forget them. The presidential battleground map is as compact as it's been in decades, with just nine states seeing the bulk of candidate visits, TV ads and get-out-the-vote efforts.

In his recent piece, "The day polling died," columnist John Podhoretz claims in the New York Post that the inconsistent political poll results over the last few days make no sense.

Our take: In his recent piece, "The day polling died," columnist John Podhoretz claims in the New York Post that the inconsistent political poll results over the last few days make no sense. Podhoretz concludes that the only thing we can be sure about from the results is that all bets are off about who will win this tight presidential race.

"Mark it down on your calendars: Yesterday - Monday, Oct. 8, 2012 - may go down in the annals of history as the day political polling died.

"It was the most ridiculous polling day among many preposterous polling days in the course of this long campaign."

Uh, none of those poll results are outside the margin of error. Different polls
use different methodologies, but overall, nothing's much changed. Romney
got a bit of a debate bounce, but Obama's still a little ahead. Also, Mike
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9:04 p.m. Oct. 9, 2012

Top comment

procuradorfiscal

Tooele, UT

Re: "You have no idea how scrupulously the Department of Labor Statistics
compiles those results."

Oh, I think we've got a pretty good
idea.

It takes a lot of scrupulous attention to political details to
slavishly
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